Best First Round Ever?

So the first round is over and now the real business begins: the knockout stages.  Expect drama, emotion and great action in abundance.  I happen to think that we’ve probably seen more good matches and action in the first round of this World Cup than we saw in the whole of the last tournament, in South Africa four years ago.  Some of it was down to that ludicrous ball, but the attacking intent shown by so many of the teams here has made for many exciting and interesting matches.  The best first round in the history of the competition?  Certainly it's right up there.

But of course, sadly, the main talking point since my last entry is ‘the bite.’  How sad for such a great spectacle to be marred by this one very unsavoury incident.  But – fair play to FIFA – they acted swiftly and (in my view) correctly, to ban Suarez for the length of time they did, and with immediate effect.  Anyone who thinks he shouldn't be banned from taking any further part in this World Cup - and everyone is entitled to their opinion of course - is wrong.  It's as simple as that.  There is absolutely no place for it on a football pitch (and he had little or no provocation either!) and the fact that he was a repeat offender too, certainly gave FIFA no choice.  Undoubtedly Suarez is a great player but who knows what is going on in his head sometimes?  Only he knows.  Anyway...hopefully, by the time the hosts take on Chile on Saturday afternoon, everyone will be talking about the football once more.  Let's hope so.

So what has been your favourite match of the first round?  There have been a fair few to choose from, but for me it was Germany versus Ghana last Saturday.  A breathtaking match full of excitement, skill and end to end football that had many dramatic moments.  Group G was probably the most entertaining group aswell with the USA involved in some good matches too, closely followed by Holland and Chile's Group B.

I think the tournament is even bubbling up still and that, in the second round we are going to see at least one real ‘humdinger’, the sort of game that will be talked about for years.  Let’s hope so.  And let’s hope that by the time we meet again it’s football all the way that people are talking about! 

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Things that I've noticed (or that have just made me chuckle)

Sam Matterface & Clarke Carlisle.  Why??  ‘Switzerland versus France matches have not been the most goal-laden recently.  The last three matches have been draws with just three goals between them.’  Explain that. 

‘The two South Korean coaches were the centre-back pairing at the 2012 World Cup.’  Errrr.  Too many more bad pieces of commentary to mention.  Out of his depth.  See earlier blog entries for more examples of this pair’s ineptitude.

Sully Muntari’s shorts waistband around his arse in the Germany Game for the whole of the last twenty minutes or so, like some sort of teenage skateboarder.

Is there somebody at every stadium who starts a Mexican Wave round about fifteen minutes into each game?  Watch!

This waving of imaginary cards seems to have spread to an epidemic in the last two days of matches.  It’s appalling behaviour and apparently the referees were told pre-tournament to punish it.  I would love to see a yellow card for this, just once.  It would be deserved, but I won’t hold my breath.

Don’t want to talk too much about England, but did you notice how it was all current or ex-Premier League players that haunted them?  Balotelli, Suarez and Bryan Ruiz.

Ron Vlaar’s nickname in Holland is ‘Ron-crete’ apparently.  (Mark Lawrenson: ‘That also suggests that he doesn’t move very fast’).

Lawro again when Brazil’s (shall I say, ‘languid’) striker Fred was substituted against Mexico: ‘Someone said to Fred: “warm up you’re coming off!”’

Rio Ferdinand at half-time in the Spain-Holland game (Van Persie having scored the equaliser on the stroke of half-time): ‘They (Spain) won’t panic.  They will still run out winners.’

The goal-line technology graphic that was coming up for every single goal for the first few days, has not been seen for some time.  Thank god, someone got the message!

Dani Alves’ hair for the last two games.  What is it?

At half-time of the Italy-England game on BBC after they’d looked at Glen Johnson’s accidental handball in the box:

Gary Lineker: ‘Have you ever got away with a handball Thierry?’

Thierry Henry: (very quick answer) ‘No, never.’

Both with wry grins on their faces.  Sorry Ireland fans but it did make me laugh.

Chris Waddle’s rant.  Short version below.  (I’ve been saying this for a while now too, but Chris does it better (and he's also an ex-world class footballer too, which helps!)).  Enough said.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/listen-chris-waddles-epic-world-7300310

The end of the world as we know it

On Wednesday we witnessed the end of an era.  But rather than find faults and criticisms with the Spanish team and performances at this competition I’d like to take a moment to remember what a fantastic team this has been.  To be World and European champions at the same time is an extremely rare feat, but to win three straight tournaments, to still have that hunger, desire and still have the right group, the right blend altogether for that length of time is a very special achievement.  And let’s not forget how good Spanish club teams have been in Europe for the last decade aswell.  I know this is supposed to be a World Cup blog, but it is well worth mentioning that in the Champions League – a competition that is notoriously difficult to win back-to-back – Barcelona have come as close as anyone to achieving this, with their victories in ’06, ’09 and ’11, with Real Madrid finally winning their tenth European crown last month.  Only Bayern Munich (with 3 final appearances in 4 years from ’10 – ’13) comes near this level of consistency.

It does look to be over…but who’s to say they won’t bounce back in the next Euros in 2016?  They don’t become bad players overnight…but certainly their capitulation here was difficult to fathom.  I can only imagine there are rifts in the camp, or something going on behind the scenes.  Their poor body language as they came off the pitch at half-time of the Chile game was all too obvious to see, reminding me of France at the World Cup in 2002 – another team that was defending European and World Champions – going home without a goal to their name after the group phase.

I find it difficult to blame the manager, for Del Bosque is a great coach, but I genuinely think it was just one tournament too many, one too far, and in football – as with all the great teams we’ve seen down the years – it had to come to an end at some point.  But what a story, so early in this World Cup.

Good World Cup so far? You can spray that again!

This World Cup is now five days old and what a tournament it has been so far!  The group stages in many previous tournaments have produced mainly tight games, teams ‘feeling themselves in’ to the tournament and a general lack of urgency, but the goals (aside from the dreadful Iran vs Nigeria match that I endured today) keep flying in.

And who would’ve thought that as the first round of group games almost come to a close that the only team so far that have been well and truly taken apart is Spain!  What an extraordinary match and the second half performance from the Dutch was phenomenal.  Robben and Van Persie in particular tore the World Champions to shreds.  It was also a great example of how goals and misses can change the whole complexion of a match.  David Silva was clean through at 1-0 from the best through-ball I’ve seen in this whole tournament – from Iniesta – and if he puts that away who knows how the game goes from there?  And then, to add insult to injury Van Persie scores a fantastic, opportunistic goal to make it 1-1 just before the break, when Spain had been in complete control of the match.  This passage of play has to of shaped what followed: a touch of magic changing the whole course of the match.  But I won’t dissect it too much, best just to enjoy the football and watch how everything starts to take shape, unfold.  It’s been a fascinating watch so far.

England also began their campaign against Italy late on Saturday night.  As a massive fan I am usually so gutted when England lose; but although I was disappointed we didn’t get a result from the match, I was strangely upbeat.  I thoroughly enjoyed the game, for I realised that I have wanted England to play like that for YEARS.  Of course, there was plenty that we could’ve done better, but it was a young team up against a streetwise Italian side.  We were only narrowly beaten and I can’t be too critical of anything.  To do so would be to vent anger merely because we lost, but there is more to football than that.  Sterling was excellent, probably the best player on the park – so promising – and Sturridge is a joy to watch.  I love watching his footwork and imagination on the ball.  On another day we could’ve got something from the game, without a doubt.  If I had to criticise anything in the performance it was that for the last twenty-five minutes or so, we seemed to stand off the Italians more and gaps began to open up whenever Italy picked the ball up in our final third.  But when you consider the conditions and how much the lads gave, it is not surprising that they began to tire.

Criticisms: I hate how sometimes cheating is called cheating and sometimes it’s called ‘clever’, such as the Diego Costa penalty incident in the Spain-Holland match.  Can somebody please explain the difference?  Incidentally, Diego Costa’s nickname in Spain literally translates as ‘bad milk.’  Something that made me laugh in this opening week.

I wish the referees would book players that do that ‘imaginary card waving’ gesture.  That would soon nip it in the bud wouldn’t it?  It’s odious, extremely unsporting and even more disgusting when it comes from a team’s MANAGER (I saw the Ivory Coast boss do it in their match against Japan, but he hasn’t been the only one) as it is setting an example to their players that it is completely okay to try and get an opponent booked.

TV COVERAGE:  A mixed bag on the whole.  On the BBC I see Steve Wilson and Mark Lawrenson as very much the ‘A-Team.’  Lawrenson constantly makes me chuckle and he also doesn’t sit on the fence.  The BBC on the whole is streets ahead of ITV although I would still get rid of Gabby Logan and certainly Robbie Savage.  On ITV it annoys me so much that having just shown forty-five minutes of often dramatic world class football, we have to listen to a ‘Chiles-ism’ just before the break.  JUST GO TO THE ADVERTS!!  He’s NOT FUNNY.  Or informative.

The worst punditry I’ve heard in the tournament so far though came from Sam Matterface and Clarke Carlisle – ITV’s commentary team at the Switzerland vs Ecuador match.  When Ecuador were 1-0 up, Matterface asked Carlisle if he believed it would be ‘France and one other’ that would qualify from the group.  Carlisle said yes and then added that it should be Ecuador as ‘Jackson Martinez can’t get in the side, so they must be pretty good.’  Firstly: Jackson Martinez is Colombian and already played in the tournament for them.  A pretty embarrassing gaff; Secondly: Switzerland are the seeded team in the group and ranked by FIFA as sixth in the world.  Surely they deserve a bit more respect?  They turned the game around in the second half and although they left it awfully late, they were good value for their 2-1 win.  But for getting their facts wrong and for writing off a seeded team before it was even half-time in their opening game, these two take the poor-punditry prize for me.

The officiating has also been a very mixed bag.  The best games are always the ones where the referee is not too fussy and can ‘see through’ the diving and gamesmanship.  The American referee Mark Geiger did a fine job in the Colombia vs. Greece match in this respect and Pat Nevin on BBC 5 Live made a great point: ‘If the players go down and the ref says: “come on, get up, get on with it,” players aren’t stupid; they’re going to say to themselves, “oh it’s one of THOSE referees…we’d better get on with it then.’  Great stuff.

And what a revelation the ‘vanishing spray’ has been!  What a great and simple idea and I’m amazed how obedient the players are being with it.  It’s not like the refs have had to send off half a dozen players for encroaching before the message gets across; the players seem to have taken it on-board straight away.  Well done to them.

A lot of work needs to be done however on this ‘goal-line technology’ graphic.  Why are we seeing that for every goal?  It is so over the top: if it has hit the back of the net I’m going to assume it’s a goal.  But it’s progress I suppose; let’s be patient with it.

So the teams will soon be playing their second games of the tournaments and the groups will start to take shape.  The first teams will be either booking their places in the knockout rounds or their flights home.  Let’s hope the exciting matches continue.

Let the Pitbull off his leash

So the opening day of the 20^th World Cup is over and what did we learn?  When I heard that Jennifer Lopez was going to appear on a stage with a Pitbull I thought my dreams had come true at last (just joking J-Lo) …but alas it was just another singer, and they seemed (along with attractive Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte) to all come out of a giant ball?  I don’t know really, I didn’t watch all of it (I always like to “drop in” on opening ceremonies just to get a flavour rather than sit and watch the whole thing; I mean: I’m going to be in front of the box pretty much permanently over the next four weeks as it is) and who names themselves after a dog anyway?

After they pranced around for a bit on this giant ball thing, performing the official World Cup song “We are one” but they were three, I’d seen enough.  Well, I kept the TV on (muted) and listened to BBC 5 Live instead, whereupon a reporter told me that a middle-aged guy had just walked past him wearing nothing but a pair of tight white speedo’s with a phone squeezed in down the side.  Too much information.

So onto the much anticipated opening game: Brazil vs. Croatia.  After getting over the fact that ITV had a new unnecessarily large score caption that seemed to take up a quarter of the screen, and that Luka Modric had a drastic new haircut that caused me to no longer be able to recognise him, a rather enjoyable game took place.  Croatia took the lead on 11 minutes after an unfortunate own goal from Marcelo - Brazil looking rather shaky and incoherent in the early stages.  It was around the twenty-minute mark that they finally started to play like we know they can and were rewarded when Neymar’s strike from outside the box found its way into the bottom corner.  It was only an equaliser on 29 minutes but seemingly the whole Brazil squad and management team wanted to get involved in the celebration scrum on the pitch.  Any need?

Brazil played rather well the rest of the half, although going forward Neymar and Oscar were the only two that really caught the eye.  Andy Townsend was up to his usual form in the ITV commentary box when he claimed that an excellent cross from Oscar ‘couldn’t have been placed into a better spot with your hand’ even though it evaded everybody.  It was a dangerous cross, I’ll give him that, but surely if you had the opportunity to put it somewhere with your hand you’d put it right onto the striker’s head Andy?

The entertainment was not quite so rich in the second half as Brazil struggled to get into any rhythm and Croatia began to steadily look more dangerous and maybe even edged it for periods.  And then, Fred (yes, Fred, who incidentally had done nothing in the entire game) went down very easily in the box after he was merely touched, and Brazil were awarded a highly debatable penalty (in truth there is no debate, it was never a penalty) and Neymar tucked it away albeit with the goalkeeper (Pletikosa, who was unconvincing to say the least) getting both hands to his shot.  And then when Croatia looked like they might still get something from the game, still pushing forward and playing well, Brazil broke away and sealed a flattering 3-1 scoreline – this time a long range toe-poke finish from the excellent Oscar, probably my man of the match (narrowly ahead of Neymar).

So the hosts will be happy, although the performance on the whole was unconvincing.  But Neymar looked very sharp and if they’re beating a strong side such as Croatia whilst not playing anywhere near their best then surely it’s ominous for the other contenders here.

Five days to the Big Kick-off!

The much-anticipated 2014 World Cup in Brazil is just a few days away and I for one can’t wait for the big kick-off in Sao Paulo on June 12^th.  Here are my feelings – both positive and negative – about what we can expect to see over the next month:

POSITIVES

Of course, first and foremost it should be a Feast of Football and there is really no better way of putting it.  If you love your football as I do, then there is nothing like it.  We will watch some amazing stories unfold, witness new stars emerge as the tournament progresses and experience the usual mixture of euphoria and utter despair that all go to make the fantastic drama of the World Cup.

I am particularly looking forward to hearing the atmosphere in the stadiums.  I am fully expecting to hear the true ROAR of a real football-obsessed crowd.  I still remember that deafening roar every time the hosting Italians scored back in 1990.  When I watch some of those great goals back now that that brilliant Italian team scored, it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  If Brazil score the opening goal of the tournament against Croatia on Thursday (and I fully expect them to) I think you will hear just such a noise – and it would be even better if they were to become just a little desperate for that goal too, just like Italy were in their opening match against Austria all those years ago.  Yes, you can’t beat the sound of a truly ecstatic crowd.  The best I’ve ever heard is perhaps for the infamous “Ben Johnson” 100m final at Seoul in 1988: a whole stadium of screaming fans who’s excitement has bubbled up for weeks, months, even years to such a level that it is ready to explode at the given moment.  When you consider how much Brazil loves football and what a religion it seems to be in South America, I think the noise should even surpass anything we’ve witnessed before.

NEGATIVES

I fear that, as well as the noise of the crowd reaching a new level, that the level of cheating and gamesmanship will also.  I despise play-acting, it really is the ugly side of the game and it seems to be getting worse all the time.  At a World Cup, where it is SO IMPORTANT, many players and teams will do whatever it takes to get the job done.  There is nothing positive to say about it, nothing sporting whatsoever.  I fear that in at least a few of the games the over-riding memory will be for the sheer level of cheating involved.  I hope I’m wrong for I just want to remember the tournament for great football and great drama.

I worry too that the ‘multi-ball’ system brought in a few years ago to supposedly ‘speed up the game’ is open to abuse.  I don’t think it’s a worry in the less important games in the early rounds, but imagine a scenario where Brazil are playing Argentina in the semi-final or final: The score is 1-1 with five minutes to play and Argentina has a throw-in in the attacking third.  They grab the ball and take a quick throw, catching the Brazilian defence completely flat and a great chance opens up…then another ball bounces onto the pitch.  Where did it come from?  Who knows, but the referee is obliged to halt the game immediately.  Can you imagine the scenes on the pitch and on the Argentine bench?  And then, in time the conspiracy theorists will be out: was it thrown on the pitch on purpose to stop the attack or was it an accident?  We’ve also seen instances where the so called multi-ball system becomes non-existent when the home side is winning.  All of a sudden no one can find a ball when it goes out of play.  It has happened many times in much less important games than a World Cup so why shouldn’t it be tried here?

But let’s hope that the negatives here are far outweighed by the positives and that we truly do see a ‘feast of football,’ the likes of which we have never seen before!  Bring it on…

Schillaci scores at Italia '90:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hyrrDWAs8